Know Your Rights

Basic rules

Minimum wage is the same for adults, liquor servers, adolescents, youth and disabled people.

Wages don’t include tips or expense money.

There are separate weekly and monthly minimum wages for some salespersons and domestic employees.

Employees must be paid at least 3 hours of pay at the minimum wage each time they go to work even if they’re sent home after less than 3 hours, unless the employee is not available to work the 3 hours. There are some exceptions to this rule for employees in the Employment Standards Regulation (Part2, Section 11) or where a variance has been issued.

Maximum deductions below minimum wage for provided meals and lodging are $3.35 per consumed meal and $4.41 per day’s lodging.

Minimum wage rates

The following minimum wage rates are set out in the Employment Standards Regulation:

Domestic employee wage rates

Minimum wage rates

For domestic employees who live in their employer’s homes: $2,848 per month.

For domestic employees who don’t live in their employer’s home: $15 per hour.

Eligible employees

A domestic employee is a person employed to work in the employer’s residence, for the care, comfort and convenience of members of that residence. Casual babysitting isn’t considered domestic employment.

All domestic employees are entitled to:

the minimum wage

general (statutory) holidays with pay

a copy of their statement of earnings and deductions for each pay period

a rest period of at least 30 minutes, paid or unpaid, for each consecutive 5 hours of work

at least 1 day of rest in each work week

vacations and vacation pay

notice of termination of employment

job-protected leaves

For employees who live in their employer’s home:

employers are required to pay the full monthly minimum wage rate, regardless of the number of hours worked

pro-rating of the monthly minimum wage is permitted where the employee agrees to work for a portion of a month, such as mornings only

the maximum allowable deductions an employer can make are $4.41 per night of lodging and $3.35 per meal; deductions can’t be made for meals not consumed

For employees who don’t live in their employer’s home:

The following employment standards don’t apply to domestic employees:

overtime compensation

restrictions on maximum hours of work

Hours of work

Employees asked to work for short periods

3-hour minimum

Employees must be paid for at least 3 hours of pay at the minimum wage each time they’re required to report to work, or come to work for short periods. This 3-hour minimum doesn’t apply if the employee isn’t available to work the full 3 hours.

If an employee works for fewer than 3 consecutive hours, the employer must pay wages that are at least equal to 3 hours at the minimum wage.

If an employee’s regular wage is greater than the minimum wage, the employer may pay them for less than 3 hours of work at this higher rate.

2-hour minimum

The following employees must be paid minimum compensation for at least 2 hours at not less than minimum wage:

school bus drivers

part-time employees of non-profit recreation or athletic programs run by a municipality, Métis Settlement or community service organization

Employees working split shifts

If an employee is required to work a split shift and there’s more than a 1-hour break between the 2 segments of the shift, the employee must be paid the minimum compensation described above for each segment of their shift.

If the meeting or training occurs on an employee’s regularly scheduled day off, the employee must be paid at least the minimum wage and overtime if applicable. If the meeting or training is less than 3 hours in length, the 3-hour minimum rule applies.

Please also note:

if an employee returns to work to attend the meeting or training after completing their shift, the employee must be paid the wages agreed to or overtime if applicable, whichever is greater

the rate of pay for meetings or training cannot be less than the minimum wage

the pay received by the employee must equal or exceed the amount described in the section on minimum compensation for short periods of work

if the meeting or training isn’t compulsory but is directly related to the employee’s work, and the employee attends, they must be paid the wages agreed to, and overtime if applicable; the employee must receive at least the minimum compensation as described above

Employees ‘on call’ or ‘on standby’ at home

if an employee isn’t required to perform work at home, no payment is required; being ‘on call’ or ‘on standby’ is not considered work

if an employee is required to work at home, the employee must be paid for hours worked at their regular rate of pay, plus applicable overtime, for the actual time worked

if the employee is required to leave home and report to the worksite, the minimum compensation for short periods of work as previously described is applicable once the employee reports to work

Incentive-based pay or commission

To calculate whether an employee earning incentive-based pay or commission has received a rate of at least minimum wage for all hours worked in a pay period, the employer must determine if the minimum compensation entitlement has been met.

Minimum compensation entitlement

An employee’s wages are totalled for the pay period set by the employer (maximum 1 month) and then divided by the total number of hours worked in that pay period. Also:

if the calculated hourly wage rate is less than the minimum wage, the employee must be paid at least the minimum wage for all hours worked

if the calculated rate is higher than the minimum wage, the employee must be paid their incentive-based pay or commission

This section doesn’t apply to employees who are entitled to a weekly minimum wage, because no daily record of hours is required to be maintained.

Allowable deductions

Meals and lodging

Employers can, with written authorization from the employee, reduce the employee’s wages below the minimum wage by a maximum of:

$4.41 for each day the employer provides the employee with lodging

$3.35 for each meal consumed by the employee; deductions can’t be made for meals not consumed

Uniforms

Deductions for uniforms aren’t allowed. This includes any costs associated with the purchase, use, cleaning or repair of a uniform, or any other special article of wearing apparel that an employee is required to wear during their hours of work.